


Lemon Drop

by notenoughtogivebread



Series: Early Glee Glimpses [2]
Category: Glee
Genre: Childhood, Gen, Self-Discovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-24
Updated: 2014-06-24
Packaged: 2018-04-10 07:13:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4382300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notenoughtogivebread/pseuds/notenoughtogivebread
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An Early Glee Glimpse. In elementary school, Wade was a Harry Potter fan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lemon Drop

Wade had joined the Harry Potter Reader’s Club in elementary school. It was nice to spend recess in the library on Wednesdays, talking about plots and favorite characters and jokes. By fourth grade, the two other guys left in the club, Henry and Derek, had settled into their love for the Weasleys and the Malfoys, respectively, and it was fun to watch them go at it, especially when Caroline Sims would start in on that junk she called “shipping.”

He was tired of hearing how Harry and Hermione were soulmates, and he was so grateful when Henry especially would distract them all with more talk about the twins or self-washing dishes or Puking Pastilles. (Less so when he would try to prove point by point that Ginny was worth “20 of that Hermione”—Wade liked Hermione, after all.)

He himself clung stubbornly to his own favorite character, even as Caroline and Derek and the very logical Tracy became annoyed with him in Book 7. He had just fallen in love with Dumbledore at first description, and saw no reason to stop: “He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots.”

Wade loved clothes; he loved flowing robes and rich colors. Sometimes alone in his room he imagined HIMSELF in Dumbledore’s high-heeled boots. He’d toe off his sneaks and lay back on his bed, closing his eyes and imagining pulling those boots onto his dainty feet. But when he opened his eyes, what he’d see instead was his own big foot with a hole in the toe of his sock.

His mom said he was starting to grow up, becoming a man. The thought of that made Wade’s insides squirm. He didn’t want to lose his small kid’s body, he didn’t want to lose his singing voice—and there was something more, he knew. The more Wade looked like a man on the outside, the less he felt like himself. He didn’t have a word for it, this feeling of wrongness. All he had was the feeling.

He just knew, when he made costumes with the other girls behind the scenes at the youth theatre guild on Saturdays, feeling the sateens and fake brocades under his hands, or messing about with his best friend Darlene, draping the most gorgeous fabrics around his shoulders and striking poses, the ache went away for a while. And for those in-between times, Wade kept a pocket full of lemon drops as a reminder that somewhere, there was a magic that could transfigure this life.

**Author's Note:**

> Trying to puzzle out how it was for Unique got me to thinking that she didn't have the language to understand her own feelings. She just had the feelings.


End file.
